A Sports Freak in Britain

There can’t be anything better for a sports freak than Britain in summer. All the more better this year, simply because they added the Olympic Games to the ‘must-do’ list this summer.

So, here I am in Britain, well ahead of the Games. But that was also to make my annual pilgrimage to the Open Championships of Golf. This year it is at the Royal Lytham and St. Annes, close to Blackpool, a lovely small, holiday resort town crowded with families. Ideal indeed for the kind of recreation it has for kids with theme parks, a 11km coastline with a promenade that is lined with excellent places for food, and for the Dads and Mums, there’s cabarets and casinos, to boot.

But lest I lose sight of my goal, it is for the golf that I am here. Two Indians in the field; a rarity indeed. In fact the first time was at the 2006 US Open, when Jeev Milkha Singh and Jyoti Randhawa teed; Jeev made the cut, Jyoti missed it. In 2009 Jeev and Gaganjeet Bhullar were to tee up at the Open at Turnberry, but Jeev pulled out due to a shoulder injury.

So, 2012 Royal Lytham and St. Annes will have a special place in Indian golfing annals as the venue where for the first time two Indians made the cut, the first hurdle for any pro golfer. The 25-year-old Anirban Lahiri is part of the crop that turned pro inspired by the now 40-year-old Jeev Milkha. Lahiri actually had a bogey-free first day, again a rarity at Opens. There were just three bogey-free rounds on Day 1, and one of them came from Brandt Snedeker, who led the Championships at the halfway mark.

Lahiri held his nerve, made the cut at even par (rounds of 68 and 72) to be tied 28th from among the 83 who made the cut. Jeev Milkha Singh, who led the field after nine holes on the first day, had rounds of 70 and 71 to make the cut at 141, and is tied 37th place.

Minutes after making the cut, Lahiri paid an absolutely delightful tribute to his Dad, Tushar, who walked with him, saying he was so happy to “see the big smile on his face”. He calls him a ‘golfaholic’ who kept checking the scores every ‘three seconds!’

Talking about Dads, Jeev’s father, the legendary Milkha Singh, too is in a league of his own. Last week Jeev won the Scottish Open, his first title in Great Britain and his fourth European Tour title. More than five decades ago, in 1958, Jeev’s father won the 440 yards in Cardiff to become India’s first gold medallist in the Commonwealth Games. Both father and son have also got a Padma Shri each, too.

Yet Jeev says, “He is part of a folklore in India sport. (And) I can come close to him in popularity only if I win a Major.”

Jeev has not done too badly thus far, though the bit about ‘winning a Major’ is still in the pipeline. He has played 12 Majors and made the cut in eight. He has made the cut in each of the four Majors and his best is tied ninth at the 2008 PGA Championships. All records for Indian golf.

As I write this, Jeev and Lahiri are at the driving range warming up for the ‘moving day’ — that’s what they call the third day of a professional golf tournament — and there’s a billion Indians, or at least a part of that billion, hoping for some great golf from the Indian duo.

Go Jeev. I have a blister, but I will be walking with you!

(V Krishnaswamy, already in Great Britain, will be blogging about the Open Golf Championships, and then through the Olympic Games)

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